Tupolev Tu-104 in 1:400 Scale |
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Updated: August 2022
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Interest in truly classic airliners in 400 scale is minimal and 99% of what has been made pre-dating 1990 comes from Aeroclassics. Even they have not focused, in the past 15 years, much on the dawn of the jet age so that the many early models of the Boeing 707 are poorly represented let alone Soviet jets. Pleasingly there has been a renaissance in interest in Soviet types recently and spearheading that thrust has been Retro Models who have developed the only example of what is historically the most important Russian civilian airliner - the Tupolev Tu-104 (Nato reporting name: Camel).
The Tu-104 is rightly famous for being the second jetliner in regular service, and following the withdrawal of the British Comet, the only operational jet until 1958. It also begot a long lineage of Tupolev jets based largely on it. Obviously its looks giveaway its heritage of being based partly on the Tu-16 Badger but that shouldn't detract from the achievement, even if overall the aircraft had many unsatisfactory attributes that made it a challenge to fly and land.
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For more about the Tu-104 checkout the aircraft's Wikipedia entry. The gold standard reference for it however remains Yefim Gordon and Vladimir Rigmant's Red Star Volume 35: Tupolev Tu-104 - Aeroflot's First Jet. This great book can still be found relatively easily and I highly recommend it.
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Tu-104 in 1:400 Scale
Given that the Tu-104 was only ever operated by two airlines (Aeroflot and CSA), and so has a limited number of livery options despite their being 201 production aircraft and a service history stretching from 1956-1981, it is not surprising that it required someone with a passion for the type to produce it in 400 scale.
RETRO4001 | Retro Models 1:400 | Tu-104A CSA Ceskoslovenske Aerolinie OK-LDA (with stand)
Retro Models first came onto the scene in October 2017 with the first model announced and I wrote about it then - see:
Development of the mould continued into May 2018 and I interviewed the Retro Models founder then:
Getting involved with the world of manufacturing diecast models is not for the feint hearted and the road to completion of the much awaited model was far from smooth for the owner of Retro Models. Nevertheless, after a variety of highs and lows, when it looked at times like the model would never appear, the first release finally made it to market in January 2019.
Since then there have been plenty of further ups and downs but it is great to see that the second and third releases reached the market in mid-2022. These feature the Aeroflot delivery colours and a CSA example whose port side was painted to resemble an Alitalia DC-8 for a movie:
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Above: RETRO4003 | Retro Models 1:400 | TU-104A Aeroflot CCCP-L5415 (with stand)
Left: RETRO4002 | Retro Models 1:400 | TU-104A CSA Ceskoslovenske Aerolinie OK-NDF/Alitalia (with stand) |
The Mould
Retro Models (2019)
Given that it is such a treat for there to even be a Tu-104 made in 400 scale it seems a little churlish to be overly critical of the effort, and frankly there isn't a lot of reason to be anyway since it is a very nice mould, which has even been improved slightly between the first and later releases. I have reviewed two of the three releases in detail and they can be found here:
Wishlist
As I mentioned there aren't a large number of liveries to be made with the Tu-104 but obviously there are a few different variations from both its operators worthy of production. Here's a list of them:
Aeroflot white top livery:
Lars Söderström, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Aeroflot 1973 colours:
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CSA blue delivery colours:
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Soviet Air Force VIP Red 001
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Vnukovo/Внуково Airport in Moscow Gate Guardian:
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Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons